C94od 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1866.  by  Grokge  William  Cdhtis,  in  the  Clerk’s  Office  of  thej 
District  Court  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


r 


THE  DUTY 


OP  THE 

AMERICAN  SCHOLAR 

•V 

TO 

POLITICS  AND  THE  TIMES. 


AN  ORATION, 

DELIVERED 

ON  TUESDAY,  AUGUST  5,  1856, 

BEFORE  THE 

LITERARY  SOCIETIES  OF  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY, 

MIDDLETOWN,  CONN. 


BY 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 


NEW  YORK: 

DIX,  EDWARDS  & CO.,  321  BROADWAY. 

1856. 


JOSIAH  QUINCY, 

The  scholar  and  patriot,  who,  born  with  our  great  revolution, 
has  always  illustrated  the  principles  that  made  it 
great,  this  discourse  is,  with  affectionate 
veneration,  inscribed. 


New  York,  August  20,  1850 


' ' 

. 


ORATION. 


Gentlemen  : The  summer  is  our  literary  festival. 
We  are  not  a scholarly  people,  hut  we  devote  to 
the  honor  of  literature  some  of  our  loveliest  days. 
When  the  leaves  are  greenest,  and  the  mower’s 
scythe  sings  through  the  grass  ; when  plenty  is  on 
the  earth,  and  splendor  in  the  heavens,  we  gather 
from  a thousand  pursuits,  to  celebrate  the  jubilee 
of  the  scholar. 

No  man  who  loves  literature,  or  who  can,  in 
any  way,  claim  the  scholar’s  privilege,  but  is  glad 
to  associate  the  beauty  of  the  season  with  the  ob- 
ject of  the  occasion  ; and  grace  with  flowers,  and 
sunshine,  and  universal  summer,  the  homage 
which  is  thus  paid  to  the  eternal  interests  of  the 
human  mind. 

We  are  glad  of  it,  as  scholars,  because  the  sea- 
son is  the  symbol  of  the  character  and  influence 
of  scholarly  pursuits.  Like  sunshine,  a spirit  of 
generous  thought  illuminates  the  world.  Like 


6 


trees  of  golden  fruit  in  the  landscape,  are  the 
philosophers  and  poets  in  history.  Happy  the 
day ! Happy  the  place  ! The  roses  and  the  stars 
wreathe  our  festival  with  an  immortal  garland. 

Too  young  to  be  your  guide  and  philosopher,  I 
am  yet  old  enough  to  be  your  friend.  Too  little 
in  advance  of  you  in  the  great  battle  of  life 
to  teach  you  from  experience,  I am  yet  old  enough 
to  share  with  you  the  profit  of  the  experience  of 
other  men  and  of  history.  I do  not  come  to- 
day a mounted  general.  I hurry,  at  your  call,  to 
place  myself  beside  you,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  a 
private  in  the  ranks.  We  are  all  young  men;  we 
are  all  young  Americans  ; we  are  all  young  Ameri- 
can scholars.  Our  interests  and  duties  are  the 
same.  I speak  to  you  as  to  comrades.  Let  us 
rest  a moment,  that  we  may  the  better  fight. 
Here,  in  this  beautiful  valley,  under  these  spread- 
ing trees,  we  bivouac  for  a summer  hour.  Our 
knapsacks  are  unslung,  and  our  arms  are  stacked. 
We  give  this  tranquil  hour  to  the  consideration  of 
our  position  and  duties. 

The  occasion  prescribes  my  theme  ; the  times 
determine  its  treatment. 

That  theme  is  the  scholar ; the  lesson  of  the 
day  is  the  duty  of  the  American  scholar  to  politics. 

I would  gladly  speak  to  you  of  the  charms  of 
pure  scholarship  ; of  the  dignity  and  worth  of  the 


7 


scholar  ; of  the  abstract  relation  of  the  scholar  to 
the  State.  The  sweet  air  we  breathe,  and  the  re- 
pose of  mid-summer,  invite  a calm  ethical  or  intel- 
lectual discourse.  But,  would  you  have  counted 
him  a friend  of  Greece,  who  quietly  discussed  the 
abstract  nature  of  patriotism  on  that  Greek  sum- 
mer day,  through  whose  hopeless  and  immortal 
hours  Leonidas  and  his  three  hundred  stood  at 
Thermopylse  for  liberty  ? And,  to-day,  as  the 
scholar  meditates  that  deed,  the  air  that  steals  in 
at  his  window  darkens  his  study,  and  suffocates 
him  as  he  reads.  Drifting  across  a continent,  and 
blighting  the  harvests  that  gild  it  with  plenty  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi,  a black  cloud  ob- 
scures the  page  that  records  an  old  crime,  and 
compels  him  to  know  that  freedom  always  has  its 
Thermopylse,  and  that  his  Thermopylae  is  called 
Kansas. 

Because,  we  are  scholars  of  to-day,  shall  we 
shrink  from  touching  the  interests  of  to-day  ? Be- 
cause we  are  scholars,  shall  we  cease  to  be  citizens  ? 
Because  we  are  scholars,  shall  we  cease  to  be 
men  ? 

Gentlemen,  I am  glad  that,  speaking  of  the 
duty  of  the  American  scholar  to  the  times,  I can 
point  to  one  who  fully  understands  that  duty, 
and  has  illustrated  it,  as  Milton  did.  Among 
fellow-countrymen,  that  scholar  falls  defending 


8 


the  name  and  rights  of  his  countr}unen ; and  one 
of  those  countrymen  stares  at  him,  as  he  lies  in- 
sensible, and  will  not  raise  him,  lest  his  motives 
be  misunderstood  ; and  another  turns  his  back 
upon  his  bleeding  colleague,  because  for  two  years 
he  has  not  been  upon  speaking  terms  with  him. 
Gentlemen,  the  human  heart  is  just,  and  no  traitor 
to  humanity  escapes  his  proper  doom.  Sacred 
history  hands  down  to  endless  infamy  the  Priest 
and  the  Levite  who  passed  by  on  the  other  side. 
Among  gentlemen,  this  scholar  pleads  the  cause 
dear  to  every  gentleman  in  history,  and  a bully 
strikes  him  down.  In  a republic  of  free  men,  this 
scholar  speaks  for  freedom,  and  his  blood  stains  the 
Senate  floor.  There  it  will  blush  through  all  our 
history.  That  damned  spot  will  never  out  from 
memory,  from  tradition,  or  from  noble  hearts. 
Every  scholar  degrades  his  order,  and  courts  the 
pity  of  all  generous  men,  who  can  see  a just  liberty 
threatened,  without  deserting  every  other  cause  to 
defend  liberty.  Of  what-use  are  your  books  ? Of 
what  use  is  your  scholarship  ? Without  freedom  of 
thought,  there  is  no  civilization  or  human  pro- 
gress ; and,  without  freedom  of  speech,  liberty  of 
thought  is  a mockery. 

I know  well  that  a conventional  prejudice  con- 
secrates this  occasion  to  dull  abstractions  and  timid, 
if  not  treacherous,  generalities.  It  would  allow  me 


9 


to  speak  of  the  scholar,  and  of  the  American  schol- 
ar, in  his  relation  to  Greek  roots  and  particles,  hut 
would  forbid  me  to  mention  his  duties  to  Ameri- 
can topics  and  times.  I might  speak  of  him  as  a 
professor,  a dialectician,  a dictionary,  a grammar, 
but  I must  not  speak  of  him  as  a man.  I know 
that  a literary  orator  is  held  to  be  bound  by  the 
same  decencies  that  regulate  the  preacher.  But 
what  are  those  decencies  ? Is  the  preacher  to  re- 
buke the  sins  of  Jerusalem,  or  of  Philadelphia? 
Is  he  to  say  in  general,  . “ be  good,”  when  he  sees 
in  what  particulars  we  are  bad,  and  counsel  silence 
and  peace,  when  silence  and  peace  are  treason  to 
God  and  man?  Are  the  liars  to  cry  to  the 
preacher,  “ It  is  not  your  business  to  denounce  ly- 
ing ; we  pay  you  to  preach  against  sin  ?”  But  the 
preachers’  Master  cried,  “Woe  unto  you  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  hypocrites,  for  ye  devour  widows’ 
houses.”  He  specified  sins,  and  classified  sinners. 
In  our  day  the  hot  adjuration  to  a clergyman  not 
to  soil  his  pulpit  with  politics,  is  merely  the  way 
in  which  the  nineteenth  century  offers  him  the 
thirty  pieces  of  silver. 

What  are  politics  but  the  Divine  law  applied  to 
human  government?  Politics  are  the  science  of 
the  relation  of  men  in  human  society  ; and  as  the 
founder  of  Christianity  taught  peace  and  good-will 
to  men,  how  can  the  Christian  '•preacher  better 


10 


fulfill  his  office  than  by  showing  how  peace  and 
good-will  may  be  introduced  among  men,  and  by 
exposing,  in  all  the  terror  of  truth,  those  whose 
policy  fosters  war  and  hatred  among  men  ? Why 
does  the  pulpit  command  so  little  comparative  re- 
spect, but  because  it  does  not  apply  truth  to  life  ? 
When  the  American  people  has  great  sins  to  ac- 
count for,  the  smooth  preacher  touches  with  the 
dull  edge  of  his  reproof  the  sins  of  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple. Therefore,  with  us,  the  lecture-room  is  more 
thronged  than  the  church,  because  the  lecturer 
addresses  the  moral  sense  of  the  people  upon  their 
moral  interests,  and  the  most  popular  lecturers  are 
the  preachers  who  are  most  faithful  in  their  pulpits 
to  God  and  man — for  their  cause  is  one. 

What  is  true  of  the  preacher  is  true  of  the  ora- 
tor. I should  insult  your  manhood,  I should  for- 
get my  own,  if,  in  addressing  you  to-day,  and  here, 
I did  not  say  what  I conceive  to  be  the  duty  of  the 
scholar  to-day,  and  here. 

I.  Of  the  scholar.  The  popular  idea  of  the 
scholar  makes  him  a pale  student  of  books,  a re- 
cluse, a valetudinarian,  an  unpractical  and  imprac- 
ticable man.  He  is  a being  with  an  endless  ca- 
pacity of  literary  and  scientific  acquisition.  He  is 
only  a consumer,  not  a producer  ; or,  if  so,  only  a 
producer  of  useless  results.  Learning  is  supposed 
to  be  put  into  „him,  not  as  vegetables  into  the 


11 


ground,  whence,  as  they  spring  again,  covering  the 
earth  with  beauty,  and  feeding  the  race,  so  learn- 
ing is  to  flower  into  heroic  deeds,  and  consoling 
thoughts  ; but  it  is  absorbed  by  him,  as  vegetables 
are  thrown  into  a cellar,  where  they  lie  buried, 
not  planted,  producing  only  some  poor,  pallid,  use- 
less shoot,  as  his  learning  only  germinates  into 
some  treatise  upon  the  ablative  absolute. 

In  the  old  plays  and  romances  we  have  the  same 
picture  of  an  absent  pedant,  the  easy  prey  of 
every  knave,  the  docile  husband  of  a termagant ; 
who,  because  he  could  read  a tragedy  of  iEschylus, 
could  not  tie  his  shoes.  He  belonged  to  great 
establishments  as  an  encyclopedia,  in  the  same 
way  that  the  fool  belonged  to  them  as  a jest- 
book.  Scholars  were  popularly  ranked  with 
women,  having  all  their  weakness,  and  none  of 
their  charms. 

This  estimate  grew  naturally  out  of  their  ex- 
ceptional character  as  monks  ; for,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  modern  history,  learning  came  out  of  the 
monasteries  with  the  ecclesiastics.  By  religious 
vows  the  monks  were  separated  from  all  secular 
interests,  including  the  family  relation.  The  repu- 
tation of  the  scholar  arose  from  the  character  of 
the  monk.  The  monk  was  a man  who  dealt  pro- 
fessionally with  ideas  rather  than  men.  He  was 
therefore  held  to  know  nothing  of  men.  Dreamer, 


UNIVERSITY  OF 
ILLINOIS  LIBRARY 
A1  URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 


12 


poet,  vagabond,  and  scholar,  grew  to  be  synony- 
mous names.  But  while  the  mass  of  monks  un- 
doubtedly justified  this  judgment,  it  is  in  the  few 
and  not  in  the  mass  that  their  characteristics  are 
to  be  sought ; they  were  accused  of  not  knowing 
men,  but  Gregory  was  a monk,  and  they  belonged 
to  the  most  sagacious  organization  in  human  his- 
tory. They  were  called  pedants  and  moles,  but 
Abelard  and  Martin  Luther  were  churchmen  and 
scholars.  To  call  grammarians,  formalists,  and 
swollen  sponges  of  learning,  scholars,  is  to  call  a 
parish  clerk  a statesman.  To  call  Bentley  and 
Parr  scholars,  is  to  insult  Johnson  and  Milton. 
Sydney  Smith  tells  of  Dr.  George — who,  hearing 
the  great  king  of  Prussia  highly  praised,  said  that 
he  had  his  doubts  whether  the  king,  with  all  his 
victories,  knew  how  to  conjugate  a Greek  verb  in 
mi.  If  you  call  Dr.  George,  and  Wolff,  and 
Heyne  scholars,  what  name  have  you  for  Goethe 
and  Schiller  ? 

In  any  just  classification  of  human  powers  and 
pursuits,  the  scholar  is  the  representative  of 
thought.  Devoted  to  the  contemplation  of  truth, 
he  is,  in  the  state,  a public  conscience  by  which 
public  measures  may  be  tested ; the  scholarly 
class,  therefore,  to  which,  now,  as  of  old,  the 
clergy  belong,  is  the  upper  house  in  the  politics  of 
the  world. 


13 


Now,  there  is  a constant  tendency  in  material 
prosperity,  when  it  is  the  prosperity  of  a class  and 
not  of  the  mass,  to  relax  the  severity  of  prin- 
ciple. Therefore,  we  find  that  the  era  of  noble 
thought  in  national  history  is  not  usually  coinci- 
dent with  the  greatest  national  prosperity.  Greece 
was  not  greatest  when  rumors  of  war  had  ceased. 
Rome  was  not  most  imperial  in  the  voluptuous 
calm  of  Constantinopolitan  decay.  The  magnifi- 
cent monotony  of  Bourbon  tyranny  in  France,  and 
the  reign  of  its  shop-keeping  king,  were  not  the 
grand  eras  of  French  history.  Holland  began  as 
generously  as  America,  and  Holland  has  sunk  into 
the  imbecile  apathy  of  commercial  prosperity, 
without  art,  without  literature,  without  a noble 
influence  in  the  world,  and  with  no  promise  of  the 
future. 

When  Napoleon  reviled  England  as  a nation  of 
shopkeepers,  it  was  not  an  idle  phrase.  Napoleon 
knew,  that,  both  historically  and  in  the  nature  of 
the  case,  it  was  the  tendency  of  a long  peace  to 
foster  trade,  and  that  it  is  the  inevitable  tendency 
of  trade,  which  is  based  upon  self-interest,  to  de- 
stroy moral  courage,  because  trade  demands  peace 
at  any  price,  and  peace  is  often  to  be  purchased 
only  by  principle.  When  he  said  a nation  of  shop- 
keepers, he  meant  a nation  whose  ruling  principle 
was  private  gain,  rather  than  public  good ; and  the 


14 


sagacious  ruler  knew  that  corruption  and  coward- 
ice are  twins. 

The  tendency  of  selfish  trade  is  demoralizing, 
because  its  eagerness  for  peace  constantly  lowers 
the  moral  ideal.  The  private  pocket  inevitably 
becomes  the  arbiter  of  public  policy.  Plausibility 
supplants  honesty ; sophistication  takes  the  place 
of  simplicity,  and  the  certain  evils  of  the  existing 
condition  are  resolutely  preferred  to  the  splendid 
possibilities  of  progress. 

Thus  it  arises  that  the  very  material  success  for 
which  nations,  like  individuals,  strive,  is  full  of  the 
gravest  danger  to  the  best  life  of  the  state,  as  of 
the  individual.  But  as  in  human  nature  itself  are 
found  the  qualities  which  best  resist  the  proclivity 
of  an  individual  to  meanness  and  moral  cowardice 
— as  each  man  has  a conscience,  a moral  mentor 
which  assures  him  what  is  truly  best  for  him  to  do — 
so  has  every  state  a class,  which,  by  its  very  char- 
acter, is  dedicated  to  eternal  and  not  to  temporary 
interests  ; whose  members  are  priests  of  the  mind, 
not  of  the  body,  and  who  are  necessarily  the  con- 
servative party  of  intellectual  and  moral  freedom. 

This  is  the  class  of  scholars.  This  elevation  and 
correction  of  public  sentiment  is  the  scholar’s  office 
in  the  state. 

To  the  right  discharge  of  this  duty  all  his  learn- 
ing is  merely  subsidiary  ; and  if  he  fail  to  devote 


15 


it  to  this  end,  he  is  recreant  to  his  duty.  The  end 
of  all  scholarly  attainment  is  to  live  nobty.  If  a 
man  read  books  merely  to  know  books,  he  is  a 
tree  planted  only  to  blossom.  If  he  read  books  to 
apply  their  wisdom  to  life,  then  he  is  a tree  plant- 
ed to  bear  glorious  fruit.  He  does  not  think  for 
himself  alone,  nor  hoard  a thought  as  a miser  a 
diamond.  He  spends  for  the  world.  Scholarship 
is  not  only  the  knowledge  that  makes  books,  but 
the  wisdom  which  inspires  that  knowledge.  The 
scholar  is  not  necessarily  a learned  man,  but  he  is 
a wise  man.  If  he  be  personally  a recluse,  his 
voice  and  influence  are  never  secluded.  If  the 
man  be  a hermit,  his  mind  is  a citizen  of  the  world. 

If,  then,  such  be  the  scholar,  and  the  scholar’s 
office,  if  he  be  truly  the  conscience  of  the  state, 
the  fundamental  law  of  his  life  is  liberty.  At  every 
cost,  the  true  scholar  asserts  and  defends  liberty  of 
thought,  and  liberty  of  speech.  Of  what  use  to  a 
man  is  a thought  that  will  help  the  world,  if  he  can- 
not tell  it  to  the  world  ? Such  a thought  comes  to 
him  as  Jupiter  came  to  Semele.  He  is  consumed 
by  the  splendor  that  secretly  possesses  him.  The 
Inquisition  condemns  Galileo’s  creed.  Pur  muove 
— still  it  moves — replies  Galileo  in  his  dungeon. 
Tyranny  poisons  the  cup  of  Socrates  ; he  smilingly 
drains  it  to  the  health  of  the  world.  The  church, 
towering  vast  in  the  midst  of  universal  supersti- 


16 


tion,  lays  its  withering  finger  upon  the  freedom  of 
the  human  mind,  and  its  own  child,  leaping  from 
its  bosom,  denounces  to  the  world  his  mother’s 
madness. 

I speak,  of  course,  of  the  ideal  scholar,  of  what 
the  scholar  ought  to  be,  rather  than  of  the  historic- 
al men  who  have  been  called  scholars  ; and  yet,  I 
think  we  shall  find  the  man  whom  we  should  select 
from  history  as  the  scholar , as  also  the  man  who 
most  nearly  fulfills  the  conditions  I have  men- 
tioned. 

In  English  history,  which  is  also  our  history, 
who  is  the  scholar  ? Is  it  Roger  Ascham,  a pedant 
and  a schoolmaster  ? Is  it  Ben  Jonson,  with  his 
careless,  cumbrous  ease,  borrowing  his  shilling, 
fighting  his  duel,  writing  his  plays  and  his  stately 
verses,  and  lighting  up  the  ^ Mermaid”  with  his 
witty  revelry?  Is  it  either  of  the  churchmen — 
even  Jeremy  Taylor,  whose  written  wisdom 
breathes  like  organ  music  through  English  litera- 
ture ; or  George  Herbert,  whose  life  shone  with 
the  beauty  of  holiness  ? Is  it  the  sad  Swift,  the 
versatile  Addison,  the  keen  Pope,  or  the  fastidious 
Gray,  noting  when  crocuses  opened,  and  roses 
bloomed,  leaving  one  poem  and  the  record  of  a 
life  as  inoffensive  as  that  of  a college  cat ; or 
Bentley,  or  Porson,  or  Parr,  who  made  valuable 
notes  on  valuable  Greek  classics  ; or  Dr.  Johnson, 


17 


gravely  supporting  an  aristocratic  public  policy, 
while  he  powerfully  and  pathetically  rebuked 
aristocratic  private  conduct  ? Let  the  name  of  Dr. 
Johnson  never  be  mentioned  among  scholars  with- 
out a sad  respect ; but  is  he,  distinctively,  the 
scholar  in  English  history  ? 

There  is  one  man,  gentlemen,  I have  not  men- 
tioned. Your  hearts  go  before  my  tongue  to  name 
him.  Technical  scholarship  begins  in  a dictionary, 
and  ends  in  a grammar.  The  sublime  scholarship 
of  John  Milton  began  -in  literature  and  ended  in 
life. 

Graced  with  every  intellectual  gift,  he  was  per- 
sonally so  comely,  that  the  romantic  woods  of 
Vallambrosa  are  lovelier  from  their  association 
with  his  youthful  figure  sleeping  in  their  shade. 
He  had  all  the  technical  excellences  of  the  scholar. 
At  eighteen  he  wrote  better  Latin  verses  than  have 
been  written  in  England.  He  replied  to  the  Ita- 
lian poets  who  complimented  him,  in  purer  Italian 
than  their  own.  He  was  profoundly  skilled  in 
theology,  in  science,  and  in  the  pure  literature  of 
all  languages. 

These  were  his  accomplishments,  but  his  genius 
was  vast  and  vigorous.  While  yet  a youth, 
he  wrote  those  minor  poems,  which  have  the 
simple  perfection  of  productions  of  nature  ; and, 
in  the  ripeness  of  his  wisdom  and  power,  he 


18 


turned  his  blind  eyes  to  heaven,  and  sang  the  lofty 
song  which  has  given  him  a twin  glory  with 
Shakespeare  in  English  renown. 

It  is  much  for  one  man  to  have  exhausted  the 
literature  of  other  nations,  and  to  have  enriched 
his  own.  But  other  men  have  done  this  in  various 
degrees.  Milton  went  beyond  it  to  complete  the 
circle  of  his  character  as  the  scholar. 

You  know  the  culmination  of  his  life.  The  first 
scholar  in  England,  and  in  the  world  at  that  time, 
fulfilled  his  office.  His  vocation  making  him  espe- 
cially the  representative  of  liberty,  he  accepted  the 
part  to  which  he  was  naturally  called,  and,  turning 
away  from  all  the  blandishments  of  ease  and  fame, 
he  gave  himself  to  liberty  and  immortality. 

Is  the  scholar  a puny,  timid,  conforming  man  ? 
J ohn  Milton  showed  him  to  be  the  greatest  citizen 
of  the  greatest  Commonwealth.  Disdaining  to 
talk  of  the  liberty  of  the  Shunamites,  when  the 
liberty  of  Englishmen  was  imperilled,  he  exposed 
the  details  of  a blind  tyranny  in  words  which  are 
still  the  delight  and  refuge  of  freedom,  and  whose 
music  is  majestic  as  the  cause  they  celebrate.  The 
radiance  of  those  principles  is  still  the  glory  of 
history.  They  still  search  out  and  expose  the 
wiles  of  tyranny,  as  the  light  of  a great  beacon, 
flashing  at  midnight  upon  a mountain  top,  reveals 
the  tents  of  the  enemy  skulking  on  the  plain. 


19 


While  the  men  of  N orfolk,  and  of  the  fens,  were 
mustering  to  march  away  for  liberty — to  return  no 
more — he  did  not  stay  to  conjugate  Greek  verbs  in 
mi,  nor  conceive  that  the  scholar’s  library  was  his 
post  of  honor.  In  words  that  are  the  eternal  rebuke 
of  every  scholar,  of  every  literary  man,  of  every 
clergyman,  who,  in  a day  when  human  liberty  is 
threatened,  does  not  stand  for  liberty,  but  cringes 
under  the  courtesies  of  position,  Milton  cries  to  us 
across  two  hundred  years,  with  a voice  of  multitu- 
dinous music,  like  that  of  a great  wind  in  a forest : 
“I  cannot  praise  a fugitive  and  cloistered  virtue, 
unexercised  and  unbreathed,  that  never  sallies  out 
and  sees  her  adversary,  but  slinks  out  of  the  race 
where  that  immortal  garland  is  to  be  run  for,  not- 
withstanding dust  and  heat.” 

Can  you  not  fancy  the  parish  beadles  getting  up 
and  walking  rapidly  away  from  such  sentiments  ? 
Can  you  not  fancy  all  the  noble  and  generous 
hearts  in  the  world  shouting  through  all  the  cen- 
turies, “amen,  amen!” 

Gentlemen,  the  scholar  is  the  representative  of 
thought  among  men,  and  his  duty  to  society  is  the 
effort  to  introduce  thought  and  the  sense  of  justice 
into  human  affairs.  He  was  not  made  a scholar  to 
satisfy  the  newspapers  or  the  parish  beadles,  but  to 
serve  God  and  man.  While  other  men  pursue 
what  is  expedient,  and  watch  with  alarm  the  flick- 


20 


ering  of  the  funds,  he  is  to  pursue  the  truth,  and 
watch  the  eternal  law  of  justice. 

But  if  this  be  true  of  the  scholar  in  general,  how 
peculiarly  is  it  true  of  the  American  scholar,  who, 
as  a citizen  of  a republic,  has  not  only  an  influence 
by  his  word  and  example,  but,  by  his  vote,  a direct 
agency  upon  public  affairs.  In  a republic  which 
decides  questions  involving  the  national  welfare  by 
a majority  of  voices,  whoever  refuses  to  vote  is  a 
traitor  to  his  own  cause,  whatever  that  cause  may 
be  ; and  if  any  scholar  will  not  vote,  nor  have  an 
opinion  upon  great  public  measures,  because  that 
would  be  to  mix  himself  with  politics,  but  contents 
himself  with  vague  declamation  about  freedom  in 
general,  knowing  that  the  enemies  of  Freedom 
always  use  its  name,  then  that  scholar  is  a traitor 
to  Liberty,  and  degrades  his  order  by  justifying 
the  reproach  that  the  scholar  is  a pusillanimous 
trimmer. 

The  American  scholar,  gentlemen,  has  duties  to 
politics  in  general ; and  he  has,  consequently,  du- 
ties to  every  political  crisis  in  his  country  ; what 
his  duties  are  in  this  crisis  of  our  national  affairs, 
I shall  now  tell  you,  as  plainly  as  I can.  The 
times  are  grave,  and  they  demand  sober  speech. 
To  us  young  men  the  future  of  this  country  is  in- 
trusted. What  names  does  history  love,  and  every 
honest  man  revere  ? The  names  of  those  who  gave 


21 


their  youth  and  strength  to  the  cause  which  is 
waiting  for  us  to  serve  it. 

II.  The  object  of  human  government  is  human 
liberty.  Laws  restrain  the  encroachment  of  the 
individual  upon  society  in  order  that  all  individuals 
may  be  secured  the  freest  play  of  their  powers. 
This  is  because  the  end  of  society  is  the  improve- 
ment of  the  individual,  and  the  development  of 
the  race.  Liberty  is,  therefore,  the  condition  of 
human  progress,  and,  consequently,  that  is  the  best 
government  which  gives  to  men  the  largest  liberty 
and  constantly  modifies  itself  in  the  interest  of 
Freedom. 

The  laws  of  society,  indeed,  deprive  men  of  lib- 
erty, and  even  of  life,  but  only  when  by  crime  they 
have  become  injurious  to  society.  The  deprivation 
of  the  life  or  liberty  of  the  individual  under  other 
circumstances,  is  the  outrage  of  those  rights  which 
are  instinctively  perceived  by  every  man,  but  are 
beyond  argument  or  proof. 

Human  Slavery  annihilates  the  conditions  of  hu- 
man progress.  Its  necessary  result  is  the  destruc- 
tion of  humanity;  and  this  not  only  directly  by  its  ef- 
fect upon  the  slave,  but  indirectly  by  its  effect  upon 
the  master.  In  the  one  it  destroys  the  self-respect 
which  is  the  basis  of  manhood,  and  is  thus  a capi- 
tal crime  against  humanity.  In  the  other  it  fosters 
pride,  indolence,  luxury,  and  licentiousness,  which 


22 


equally  imbrute  the  human  being.  Therefore,  in 
slave  states  there  is  no  literature,  no  art,  no  pro- 
gressive civilization.  Manners  are  fantastic  and 
fierce  ; brute  force  supplants  moral  principle ; 
freedom  of  speech  is  suppressed  because  the  natu- 
ral speech  of  man  condemns  slavery ; a sensitive 
vanity  is  called  honor,  and  cowardly  swagger, 
chivalry  ; respect  for  woman  is  destroyed  by  uni- 
versal licentiousness ; lazy  indifference  is  called 
gallantry,  and  an  impudent  familiarity,  cordiality. 
To  supply  by  a travesty  of  courage  the  want  of 
manly  honor,  men  deliberately  shoot  those  who 
expose  their  falsehoods.  Therefore,  they  go  armed 
with  knives  and  pistols,  for  it  is  a cardinal  article 
of  a code  of  false  honor  that  it  is  possible  for  a 
bully  to  insult  a gentleman.  Founded  upon  crime, 
for  by  no  other  word  can  man-stealing  be  charac- 
terized, the  prosperity  of  such  a people  is  at  the 
mercy  of  an  indignant  justice.  Hence  a slave  so- 
ciety has  the  characteristics  of  wandering  tribes, 
which  rob,  and  live,  therefore,  insecure  in  the 
shadow  of  impending  vengeance.  There  is  nothing 
admirable  in  such  a society  but  what  its  spirit 
condemns  ; there  is  nothing  permanent  in  it  but 
decay.  Against  nature,  against  reason,  against 
the  human  instinct,  against  the  Divine  law,  the  in- 
stitution of  human  slavery  is  the  most  dreadful 
that  philosophy  contemplates,  or  the  imagination 


28 


conceives.  Certainly,  some  individual  slaveholders 
are  good  men,  but  the  mass  of  men  are  never  bet- 
ter than  their  institutions ; and  certainly  some 
slaves  are  better  fed  and  lodged  than  some  free 
laborers ; but  so  are  many  horses  better  fed  and 
lodged  than  some  free  laborers  ; is,  therefore, 
a laborer  to  abdicate  his  manhood  and  become  a 
horse  ? and,  certainly,  as  it  exists,  God  may,  in  a 
certain  sense,  be  said  to  permit  it ; but  in  the  same 
way  God  permitted  the  slaughter  of  the  innocents 
in  Judea,  and  he  permitted  the  awful  railway 
slaughter,  not  a month  ago,  near  Philadelphia. 
Do  you  mean  that  as  comfort  for  the  mothers  of 
Judea,  and  the  mothers  of  Pennsylvania? 

History  confirms  what  philosophy  teaches.  The 
eastern  nations  and  the  Spanish  colonies,  Pome  in 
her  decline,  and  the  southern  states  of  America, 
display  a society  of  which  the  spirit  is  similar, 
however  much  the  phenomena  may  differ.  Moral 
self-respect  is  the  first  condition  of  national  life, 
as  labor  is  the  first  condition  of  national  pros- 
perity ; but  the  laborer  cannot  have  moral  respect 
unless  he  be  free. 

The  true  national  policy,  therefore,  is  that 
which  ennobles  and  dignifies  labor.  Cincinnatus, 
upon  his  farm,  is  the  ideal  of  the  citizen.  But 
slavery  disgraces  labor,  by  making  the  laborer  a 
brute,  while  it  makes  the  slaveholder  the  imme- 


24 


diate  rival  of  the  free  laborer  in  all  the  markets 
of  the  world.  Hence,  Tiberius  Gracchus,  one  of 
the  greatest  of  Homan  citizens,  early  saw  that,  in  a 
state  where  an  oligarchy  at  the  same  time  monopo- 
lized and  disgraced  labor,  there  must  necessarily 
be  a vast  demoralized  population,  who  would  de- 
mand support  of  the  state,  and  be  ready  for  the  ser- 
vice of  the  demagogue,  who  is  always  the  tyrant. 
Gracchus  was  killed,  but  the  issue  proved  the  pro- 
phet. The  canker  which  Rome  cherished  in  her  bo- 
som, ate  out  the  heart  of  Rome,  and  the  empire 
whose  splendor  flashed  over  the  whole  world,  fell 
like  a blighted  tree.  Rot  until  slavery  had  barbar- 
ized the  great  mass  of  the  Romans,  did  Rome  fall 
a prey  to  the  barbarians  from  abroad. 

Gentlemen,  it  is  a disgrace  for  all  of  us,  that  in 
this  country,  and  in  this  year  of  our  history,  the 
occasion  should  require  me  to  state  such  principles 
and  facts  as  these.  History  seems  to  be  an  end- 
less iteration.  But  it  is  not  so.  Ho  not  lose 
heart.  It  only  seems  so  because  there  has  been 
but  one  great  cause  in  human  affairs — the  cause 
of  liberty.  In  a thousand  forms,  under  a thousand 
names,  the  old  contest  has  been  waged.  It  divided 
the  politics  of  Greece  and  Rome,  of  England, 
France,  America,  into  two  parties  ; so  that  the 
history  of  liberty  is  the  history  of  the  world. 

As  American  citizens,  we  are  called  upon  to 


25 


fight  that  battle  by  resisting  the  extension  of  the 
institution  which  I have  described.  The  advocacy 
of  the  area  of  its  extension  is  not  a whim  of  the 
slave  power,  but  is  based  upon  the  absolute  neces- 
sities of  the  system.  An  institution  which  is  men- 
tally and  morally  pernicious  cannot  be  economic- 
ally advantageous.  To  suppose  so  is  to  accuse 
God  of  putting  a premium  upon  sin.  The  system 
of  slave  labor,  by  demoralizing  the  population  and 
exhausting  the  soil,  absolutely  demands  expansion. 

Of  this  economical  fact  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
The  state  of  Virginia,  for  instance,  has  a finer 
climate,  richer  and  cheaper  soils,  with  less  expen- 
sive means  of  developing  their  wealth,  than  Penn- 
sylvania, New  York,  and  Massachusetts.  At  the 
Revolution  Virginia  had  twice  the  population  of 
Pennsylvania,  much  more  disposable  capital,  and 
the  best  facilities  for  external  commerce  and  inter- 
nal communication.  In  1850,  the  cash  value  of 
farms  in  Pennsylvania  was  $25  an  acre.  In  Vir- 
ginia, $8  an  acre.  In  New  Jersey,  with  a soil  in- 
ferior to  that  of  Virginia,  the  average  value  of 
• farming  land  is  $44  an  acre.  Governor  Johnson, 
late  governor  of  Virginia,  says,  that  at  a period 
not  very  remote,  her  trade  exceeded  that  of  all 
New  England  ; and  Norfolk  surpassed  New  York 
in  the  extent  of  her  shipping.  At  the  Revolution, 
the  commerce  of  Virginia  was  four  times  that  of 


26 


New  York.  In  1853,  the  imports  into  New  York 
were  $180,000,000,  and  into  Virginia,  less  than 
$400,000.  Lands  in  Virginia  capable  of  producing 
twenty-five  to  thirty  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre, 
and  only  twenty-four  hours  by  rail  from  New 
York,  are  to  be  had  for  a fortieth  of  the  price  of 
similar  lands  in  New  York  itself. 

Virginia  is  a northern  slave  state,  but  a senator 
from  Alabama,  the  most  southern  of  the  slave 
states,  confesses  of  his  own  home  : “a  country  in 
its  infancy,  where  fifty  years  ago  scarce  a forest- 
tree  had  been  felled  by  the  pioneer,  is  already  ex- 
hibiting the  painful  signs  of  senility  and  decay  ap- 
parent in  Virginia  and  the  CarolinasV 

These  are  specimens  of  the  statistics  which  are 
to  be  found  in  books  that  any  man  can  read.  All 
the  travellers  tell  the  same  story.  They  find  fat 
slaves,  and  a starved  and  exhausted  soil.  Desola- 
tion, like  a miasma,  broods  upon  the  land. 

Extension  of  area  is  therefore  vital  to  the  sys- 
tem, and  we  shall  find  that  the  political  power  of 
slavery  in  the  United  States  has  been  constantly 
directed  to  the  acquisition  of  territory. 

When  the  Union  was  formed,  the  system  of 
slave  labor  existed  in  all  of  the  states  except 
Massachusetts.  At  the  North,  however,  it  was 
nominal  only;  several  of  the  states  had  provided  for 
its  removal,  and  it  soon  disappeared.  The  Constitu- 


27 


tion  carefully  forbore  to  mention  the  subject  of  sla- 
very by  name  ; and  it  is  an  axiom  that  every  grave 
state  paper  is  to  be  interpreted  by  the  well-known 
opinions  of  its  authors  in  the  matters  to  which  it 
relates.  The  difficult  points  in  settling  the  Consti- 
tution are  those  which  relate  to  slavery.  The 
Convention  threatened  to  be  wrecked  upon  it. 
Now  we  have  the  opinion  of  this  subject  held  by 
the  most  eminent  members  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention,  expressed  either  in  debate  upon  this 
very  instrument,  or  in  some  other  connection  with 
the  same  great  question.  In  1786,  George  Wash- 
ington wrote  to  John  F.  Mercer:  “It  is  among 
my  first  wishes  to  see  some  plan  adopted  by  which 
slavery  in  this  country  may  be  abolished  by  law 
and  by  his  will  he  emancipated  his  own  negroes. 
Thomas  Jefferson  says,  in  his  Notes  on  Virginia, 
“The  whole  commerce  between  master  and  slave 
is  a continual  exercise  of  the  most  unremitting 
despotism  on  the  one  part,  and  degrading  submis- 
sion on  the  other.  * * * Indeed,  I tremble  for 
my  country  when  I reflect  that  God  is  just,  and 
his  justice  cannot  sleep  forever and  Jefferson  in- 
troduced into  the  Congress  of  the  old  Confedera- 
tion, the  famous  and  noble  free  clause  of  the 
Northwest  Ordinance.  Benjamin  Franklin  was 
President  of  the  first  Abolition  Society.  In  the 
Convention,  Gouverneur  Morris,  of  Pennsylvania, 


28 


declared  it  to  be  “ The  curse  of  Heaven  upon  the 
State  where  it  prevailed.’7  Elbridge  Gerry,  of 
Massachusetts,  said  the  Convention  must  be  care- 
ful not  to  give  any  sanction  to  slavery.  James 
Madison  thought  it  1 1 wrong  to  admit  in  the  Con- 
stitution the  idea  that  there  could  be  property 
in  man.77  And  I am  glad  to  say,  upon  the  banks 
of  this  river,  that  two  of  the  great  men  whom 
Connecticut  sent  to  that  Convention,  Oliver  Ells- 
worth and  Roger  Sherman,  both  protested  against 
any  sanction  of  the  system  by  the  Constitution. 

It  is  evident  that  the  fathers  regarded  slavery 
with  aversion,  and  as  an  institution  so  temporary 
in  its  nature  that,  although  essentially  hostile  to 
the  very  objects  of  the  Union,  it  should  not  be  a 
bar  to  union.  But  hating  it,  and  convinced  of  its 
temporary  character,  they  would  not  allow  the 
great  charter  of  our  liberties  to  be  defiled  with  its 
name.  Persuaded  by  the  same  spirit  of  concession 
to  a temporary  evil,  they  allowed  the  slave-trade 
to  continue  until  the  year  1808 — then  to  be  termi- 
nated, if  Congress  willed. 

But  with  the  beginning  of  the  new  Government 
began  the  debate  upon  slavery.  In  the  very  first 
Congress,  Mr.  Parker,  of  Virginia,  said  that  the 
clause  allowing  the  slave-trade  was  contrary  to 
revolutionary  principles,  and  ought  not  to  be  per- 
mitted. Petitions  against  the  slave-trade  and 


29 


slavery  began  to  present  tnemselves.  Benjamin 
Franklin  headed  an  anti-slavery  petition  to  the 
first  Congress,  which  does  the  eyes  good  to  read. 
In  the  debate  upon  receiving  the  petitions  con- 
cerning the  slave-trade,  in  which  the  slave  party, 
before  the  Union  was  in  operation,  began  with  the 
cry  of  disunion,  James  Madison  said  that  Congress 
might  guard  against  the  introduction  of  slaves  into 
new  territory. 

The  petitions  relating  to  the  subject  were  gene- 
rally returned,  and  the  petitioners  were  in  every 
way  reviled  and  insulted  by  the  rank  slave  power. 

In  1798,  upon  the  question  of  the  erection  of  a 
territorial  government  for  Mississippi,  the  bill  de- 
clared that  the  Territory  should  be  regulated  in 
every  respect  like  the  territory  northwest  of  the 
Ohio,  excepting  only  that  slavery  should  not  be 
prohibited. 

Mr.  Thatcher,  of  Massachusetts,  moved  to  strike 
out  the  exception,  and  prohibit  slavery,  in  ac- 
cordance with  Jefferson’s  original  plan  of  prohibi- 
tion in  all  new  territory,  south  as  well  as  north 
of  the  Ohio.  He  said,  and  his  words  have  still  the 
eloquence  and  pertinence  of  truth,  “We  are  about 
to  establish  a government  for  a new  country.  The 
government  of  which  we  form  a part,  originated 
from,  and  is  founded  upon,  the  rights  of  man,  and 
upon  that  ground  we  mean  to  uphold  it.  With 


30 


what  propriety,  then,  can  a government  emanate 
from  us  in  which  slavery  is  not  only  tolerated,  but 
sanctioned  by  law?  It  has,  indeed,  been  urged, 
that  as  this  territory  will  be  settled  by  emigrants 
from  the  southern  states,  they  must  be  allowed 
to  have  slaves  ; as  much  as  to  say  that  the  people 
of  the  South  are  fit  for  nothing  but  slave- 
drivers  ; that  if  left  to  their  own  labor  they  would 
starve.” 

At  such  sentiments  as  these,  boldly  uttered  by 
an  American  freeman,  when  the  country  was  yet 
weak  with  a seven  years’  struggle  for  freedom,  the 
Slave  Power  shook  its  head  indignantly,  and  said 
that  such  remarks  were  very  mischievous,  and  re- 
jected Mr.  Thatcher’s  motion. 

The  constant  threat  of  disunion,  which  was  free- 
ly uttered  by  the  Slave  Power,  had  its  effect.  The 
national  slave-trade  was  prohibited,  but  not  with- 
out clauses  which  annulled  the  principle  of  the  bill 
— for  it  allowed  the  forfeited  slaves  to  be  sold,  if 
a state  so  decreed. 

The  slave  senators  said  that,  undoubtedly,  sla- 
very was  a misfortune.  Mr.  Macon,  of  North 
Carolina,  said  it  was  a curse,  but  the  country  had 
it,  and  must  not  talk  about  it,  but  endure  it.  This 
half  concession  of  the  justice  of  the  anti-slavery 
sentiment,  the  extreme  difficulties  of  inaugurating 
the  new  government,  and  the  determination  of  the 


31 


Slave  Power  to  be  humored  or  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  gradually  silenced  the  discussion.  Even 
Jefferson  closed  his  mouth.  Other  questions  of 
immediate  importance  arose.  The  war  of  1812 
was  to  be  fought.  Meanwhile,  the  introduction  of 
new  Southern  States,  especially  adapted,  as  was 
asserted,  to  slave-labor,  the  sudden  and  immense 
increase  of  the  cotton  interest,  only  served  to  re- 
solve the  Slave  Power  to  make  the  long  silence 
upon  the  question  the  sleep  of  death. 

But  in  1819,  the  volcano  began  to  smoke  once 
more.  Then  took  place  the  great  debate  upon  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  Mr.  Tallmadge,  of  New 
York,  spoke  on  the  occasion  for  America  and  man- 
kind. His  words  have  so  singular  a pertinence  to 
the  debates  of  this  day  in  Congress,  that  I quote  a 
few  of  them  : 

“If  it  is  not  safe  now  to  discuss  slavery  on  this 
floor,  if  it  cannot  now  come  before  us  as  a proper 
subject  of  general  legislation,  what  will  be  the 
lesult  when  it  is  spread  through  your  widely- 
extended  domain  ? Its  present  threatening  aspect, 
and  the  violence  of  its  supporters,  so  far  from 
inducing  me  to  yield  to  its  progress,  prompt  me  to 
resist  its  march.  Now  is  the  time  ! The  extension 
of  the  evil  must  now  be  prevented,  or  the  oppor- 
tunity will  be  lost  forever.  * * * If  the  Western 
country  cannot  be  settled  without  slavery,  gladly 


32 


would  I prevent  its  settlement  till  time  shall  be 
no  more.” 

Mr.  Cobb,  of  Georgia,  fixing  his  eyes  upon  Tall- 
madge,  said,  as  the  slave  section  has  always  said, 
that  if  the  Northern  members  persisted,  the  Union 
would  be  dissolved. 

Mr.  Tallmadge — let  us  remember  his  name, 
young  Americans,  with  those  of  our  great  men — 
Mr.  Tallmadge  said:  “ Language  of  this  sort  has 
no  effect  upon  me.  My  purpose  is  fixed.  It  is 
interwoven  with  my  existence.  Its  durability  is 
limited  with  my  life.  It  is  a great  and  glorious 
cause,  setting  bounds  to  slavery  the  most  cruel 
and  debasing  the  world  has  ever  witnessed.  It  is 
the  cause  of  the  freedom  of  man.” 

It  was  the  most  famous  debate  in  our  history. 
Rufus  King  frankly  declared  that  it  was  a question 
of  slave  or  free  policy  in  the  National  Government. 
Every  argument  that  has  been  used  in  the  discus- 
sion by  the  Slave  Power  during  the  last  two  years 
was  then  presented,  and  completely  refuted  by  the 
representatives  of  freedom.  The  legislatures  of 
the  states  especially  instructed  their  representa- 
tives how  to  vote.  The  country  shook  as  in  the 
toils  of  an  earthquake.  The  vote  was  taken,  and 
the  Slave  Power  conquered.  The  slave  delega- 
tions voted  in  a body  for  the  bill,  and  Mr.  Pinck- 
ney wrote  home,  on  the  day  of  the  decision,  “We 


* 33 


have  triumphed.7’  The  Slave  Power  had  tri- 
umphed, because  the  Congress  of  a free  people 
had  agreed  to  allow  slavery  in  territory  where  it 
had  the  power  to  prohibit  it,  this  power  being  ex- 
pressly acknowledged  by  a Slave  President,  and  a 
cabinet  of  which  John  C.  Calhoun  was  a member. 
It  had  extended  to  a free  territory  the  privilege 
of  representation  upon  a basis  of  slaves,  thus  de- 
liberately preferring  the  slave  system  of  labor,  to 
which  privilege  there  was  not  the  shadow  of  claim, 
and  which  had  been  granted  to  the  Revolutionary 
slave  states  in  consideration  of  the  system  which 
existed  there  at  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the 
Union, . and  of  the  great  mutual  struggle  just 
passed.  John  Quincy  Adams,  also  one  of  the 
cabinet,  recorded  his  opinion  that  it  was  a triumph 
of  the  Slave  Power.  It  was  so  considered  then. 
Time  has  proved  it  since. 

At  the  same  time  with  the  passage  of  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise,  President  Monroe  ceded  to 
Spain  the  region  now  known  as  the  state  of  Texas, 
in  consideration  of  the  territory  embracing  the 
state  of  Florida. 

This  completed  the  line  of  slavery  along  the 
Atlantic.  The  President  was  reproached  by  the 
slave  party  for  thus  ceding  territory  which  would 
allow  a free  state  to  lie  on  the  very  lines  of  sla- 
very. Mr.  Monroe  wrote  to  Gen.  Jackson  that 


34  • 


the  cession  was  necessary  to  pacify  the  Northern 
sentiment.  He  knew  that  having  secured  Florida 
to  slavery,  Texas  could  be  retaken  when  wanted. 
Gen.  Jackson  replied,  that  “for  the  present  we 
ought  to  be  contented  with  the  Floridas.”  We 
meaning  the  slave  party. 

All  this  is  what  is  humorously  termed  “ a settle- 
ment” of  the  slave  question — the  Slave  Power 
having  “settled”  the  question  of  the  Territories 
and  Texas  as  the  wolf  settled  Little  Red  Riding 
Hood  and  Little  Red  Riding  Hood’s  Grandmother. 
This  word  “settlement”  is  the  eternal  tragical 
joke  of  our  political  history. 

For  some  years  after  1820  the  subject  was  not 
directly  vexed,  but  the  resolution  of  the  Slave 
Power  never  relaxed.  If  the  moral  minority  from 
the  North  ventured  a word  which  favored  a decent 
respect  for  the  principles  of  our  Government,  the 
Slave  Power  had  only  to  shake  its  gory  locks  and 
cry  “disunion,”  and  the  frightened  North  hurried 
to  abdicate  its  constitutional  rights  and  moral 
honor. 

In  1835,  Mr.  Calhoun,  the  most  sagacious  of 
southern  statesmen,  opposed  the  reception  of  pe- 
titions by  Congress  which  alluded  to  the  subject 
of  Slavery.  Even  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
Slavery  denied  the  right  of  petition,  because  it 
must,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  deny  every  natu- 


35 


ral  right  of  man  or  of  freemen.  The  moral  mi- 
nority, headed  by  John  Quincy  Adams,  white- 
headed  patriarch  of  Constitutional  liberty,  gave 
battle.  Mr.  Calhoun  cried  11  disunion.”  The  Slave 
Power  echoed  “disunion,7’  and  the  right  of  peti- 
tion was  denied  to  freemen  by  the  legislators  they 
had  themselves  appointed. 

This  was  an  immense  victory  for  the  Slave 
Power  ; for  it  revealed  to  them  a state  of  demoral- 
ization in  the  party  of  Freedom.  It  showed  the 
Slave  Power  that  it  could  accomplish  its  ends  by 
depending  upon  the  moral  weakness  of  the  enemy 
rather  than  upon  its  own  numerical  strength.  The 
historian  commemorates  a national  crime  when  he 
records  that  during  all  these  debates  the  party  of 
Freedom  had  a majority  of  votes  in  Congress. 

From  the  moment  of  this  clear  perception  of 
Northern  demoralization  the  course  of  the  Slave 
Power  has  been  swift  and  fearful.  Texas  was,  of 
course,  soon  retaken,  entailing  upon  us  a war 
with  Mexico,  and  opening  an  outlet  for  Slavery 
which  seemed  illimitable  among  the  miserable 
states  of  the  great  Isthmus. 

During  the  few  subsequent  years  the  national 
demoralization  seemed  to  be  complete.  The  great 
American  experiment  was  palpaply  failing.  A 
Republic  or  government  of  the  majority,  whose 
permanent  prosperity  must  depend  upon  free  Ja- 


36 


bor,  was  yielding  to  the  policy  of  slave-labor  as  a 
national  principle.  The  Federal  Government  in 
its  most  important  initiative  function,  that  of 
making  the  organic  laws  of  new  territories,  was 
administered  exclusively  for  the  benefit  of  a small 
privileged  class,  that  privilege  resting  upon  the 
most  odious  human  crime.  The  Union  had  come 
to  mean  a league  for  the  diffusion  of  Slavery 
among  men.  The  Constitution  was  declared  to 
have  been  framed  to  nationalize  the  system,  and 
was  so  interpreted.  It  was  perfectly  understood 
that  political  preferment  depended  upon  subservi- 
ence to  the  Slave  Power.  He  only  could  be  chief 
among  freemen — he  only  head  of  a Government 
which  was  founded  to  secure  the  blessings  of 
Liberty,  who  favored  the  extension  of  human 
Slavery. 

At  the  North  the  whole  question  was  settled  by 
calling  it  a very  difficult  question.  So  closely  en- 
twined were  the  interest  of  trade  and  the  slave 
system,  that  the  subject  was  not  allowed  to  be 
discussed.  The  professed  abolitionists  were  re- 
viled as  fanatical  traitors,  and  the  entire  practical 
silence  of  the  North  was  justified  by  saying  that 
the  discussion  of  the  subject  had  only  increased 
the  difficulty  by  inflaming  the  Slave  Power  ; as  if, 
because  a burglar  may  shoot  you  if  you  oppose 
him,  therefore  burglary  must  not  be  mentioned. 


37 


The  question  was  considered  so  difficult  that  it 
was  never  asked.  We  were  sinking  deeper  and 
deeper  in  the  slough,  and,  because  it  was  so  very 
hard  to  get-  out,  we  must  not  even  make  the  effort 
to  escape  suffocation.  Good  manners  forbade  all 
allusion  to  slavery.  All  places  which  Northern- 
ers and  Southerners  frequented,  Newport,  Sara- 
toga, the  mountains,  among  which  Liberty  was 
born,  and  the  sea,  which  is  the  very  symbol  of  Free- 
dom, across  which  she  has  fled  a hundred  times  to 
found  her  immortal  empire,  were  silent  over  the 
spreading  pestilence.  The  pulpit  held  its  tongue  ; 
the  press,  which  in  a free  land  should  be  the 
alarm  bell  of  liberty,  was  muffled.  If  a man  from 
the  free  states  died  for  liberty,  as  Lovejoy  died 
at  Alton,  he  was  called  a fanatical  fool,  and  Free- 
dom had  no  other  epitaph  for  her  martyr.  Other 
countries  to  which  we  superciliously  asserted  our 
superiority  asked,  contemptuously,  “What  is  this 
Republic  which  makes  cattle  of  men,  and  whips 
women  when  they  grieve  that  their  children  are 
sold  away  from  them?”  And  we  replied:  “You 
don't  understand  the  peculiarities  of  the  situa- 
tion.” We  tried  to  believe  that  the  Slave  Power 
regretted  slavery,  because  it  said,  with  every  new 
link  of  the  chain  it  forged,  that  it  was  a great  mis- 
fortune. But  when  the  chain  was  long  enough 
and  strong  enough,  as  it  had  now  grown  to  be, 


38 


the  Slave  Power  deserted  the  old  ground  that  the 
system  was  a necessary  but  temporary  evil,  and 
claimed  that  slavery  was  a divinely-appointed 
missionary  system  for  the  Africans — an  institution 
just  in  itself  and  profitable  for  the  country. 

The  two  most  eminent  living  statesmen,  Mr. 
Clay  and  Mr.  Webster,  protested,  indeed,  that 
they  were  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slave  terri- 
tory. But  Mr.  Clay  was  himself  a slaveholder, 
and  a little  later  Mr.  Webster  refused  to  vote  to 
prohibit  slavery  in  free  territory. 

The  Slave  Power  was  mad  with  its  own  success. 
Its  pride  grew  purple  with  audacity.  It  called 
smooth,  complaisant  men  in  the  free  states,  who 
forbore  to  say  that  slavery  was  a sin,  and  who 
worked  hard  in  the  interest  of  the  Slave  Power, 
patriots  and  lovers  of  the  Union — as  if  a political 
and  commercial  union  might  not  be  bought  at  too 
dear  a price.  But,  pursuing  its  great  end — name- 
ly, the  absolute  numerical  control  of  the  Federal 
Government — the  Slave  Power  tried  once  more 
the  quality  of  free  state  humanity  and  patriotism. 
The  fugitive  slave  bill  was  passed. 

I say  no  more  of  that  bill  than  that  it  mani- 
festly prefers  the  inhuman  letter  of  the  law  to  the 
justice  which  is  the  end  of  all  law.  It  was  a 
measure  in  the  interest  of  slavery  and  not  of 
Freedom,  and  it  was  passed  under  the  old  threat 


39 


of  disunion  from  the  Slave  Power.  But  the  North 
seemed  to  be  eager  for  shame.  The  free  states 
hurried  to  kiss  the  foot  of  the  monstrous  power 
that  claimed  the  most  servile  allegiance.  Gesler 
put  his  cap  upon  the  pole,  the  people  bowed  in 
homage,  and  the  fainting  hope  of  the  world  mur- 
mured, “Then  William  Tell  is  dead.” 

History  is  not  a series  of  causeless  consequences. 
Event  follows  event  in  time,  as  minute  follows 
minute  in  the  day.  I tell  you  that  if  the  Slave 
Power  had  not  found  itself  obsequiously  courted 
by  what  was  called  the  respectable  public  opinion 
of  Boston,  to  do  its  worst  wrong  in  the  very 
shadow  of  Faneuil  Hall,  a son  of  Boston  and  a 
senator  from  Massachusetts  would  never  have 
been  smitten  to  the  floor,  unawares  and  defence- 
less, for  having  spoken  to  a greater  issue  of  the 
same  cause  for  which  Samuel  Adams  and  James 
Otis  spoke,  and  Joseph  Warren  fell. 

The  course  of  the  Slave  Power  was  now  reck- 
less. There  was  no  longer  need  of  concealment  or 
moderation  when  its  natural  enemy  was  its  most 
servile  ally.  It  resolved  to  strike  one  final  blow" 
to  secure  the  future  and  to  put  the  question  of 
slavery  extension  beyond  debate.  Human  affairs 
are  uncertain.  The  support  it  had  received  from 
the  North  might  be  withdrawn.  There  might  be 
a reaction.  Freedom  might  resume  that  actual 


40 


superiority  which  it  still  had,  numerically,  in  Con- 
gress. The  circumstances  attending  the  passage 
of  the  fugitive  slave  bill  having  exposed  the  en- 
tire demoralization  of  the  free  majority,  it  was  to 
be  supposed  that  no  resistance  would  be  made  to 
any  audacity. 

In  that  spirit,  and  with  that  knowledge,  the 
Missouri  Compromise  was  repealed,  and  all  the 
western  territory  of  the  United  States,  larger  in 
area  than  all  the  settled  states,  was  opened  to 
the  possibility  of  slave-labor.  The  Slave  Power 
threw  off  every  mask  of  nationality,  of  common 
honor,  and  of  common  decency.  It  deliberately 
did  a deed  which  would  have  caused  an  individual 
to  be  hooted  from  the  society  of  honest  men  and 
branded  as  a liar.  Its  darling  doctrine  was  that 
the  Union  is  a contract.  But  a national  contract 
exists  only  in  the  honor  of  the  parties,  and  the 
Slave  Power  repudiated  its  honor  as  it  had  lost 
its  shame.  As  a man  swindles  a friend  to  support 
a prostitute  who  ruins  him  soul  and  body,  so  the 
Slave  Power  broke  its  faith  with  the  free  states 
to  cherish  an  institution  which  has  been  its  physic- 
al and  moral  destruction.  Whom  the  gods  would 
destroy  they  first  madden,  and  so  lawless,  so  auda- 
cious, so  appalling,  was  this  assault  upon  the 
slavish  submission  of  the  free  states,  that  it  in- 
stantly restored  them  their  sight  if  not  their 


41 


strength,  and,  God  willing,  the  glad  future 
shall  cry  that  William  Tell  was  not  dead  hut 
sleeping. 

I shall  not  repeat  the  history  of  the  Kansas 
iniquity.  You  know  that  every  one  of  the  slight 
pretences  of  protection  for  free  institutions  in  Mr. 
Douglas’s  bill  was  immediately  destroyed.  You 
know  that  the  bill  affected  to  allow  the  people  of 
Kansas  to  settle  their  own  government,  and  you 
know  that  the  President  of  the  United  States 
senate  which  passed  the  bill,  himself  led  hordes 
of  men  from  Missouri  and  controlled  the  elections 
against  the  people  of  Kansas.  You  know  that 
the  delegates,  so  elected,  passed  laws  for  the  Ter- 
ritory, which  outraged  humanity,  common  sense, 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  You 
know  that  the  people  of  Kansas  refused  to  submit 
to  a Missouri  mob.  You  know  that  the  President 
of  the  United  States  endeavored  to  compel  that 
submission  by  means  of  the  national  army.  It 
was  the  final  triumph  of  the  Slave  Power.  Its 
success  could  not  be  greater.  The  President  of 
the  United  States  orders  the  army  of  the  United 
States  to  force  slavery  upon  a free  territory,  and 
while  I speak  to  you  the  crime  goes  on.  But  also 
while  I speak  to  you  twenty  millions  of  a moral 
people,  politically  dedicated  to  liberty,  are  asking 
themselves  whether  their  government  shall  be 


42 


administered  solely  in  the  interest  of  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  slaveholders. 

At  last  we  are  overtaken  by  a sense  of  the 
grandeur  of  the  issue  before  us  ; but  so  long  did 
God  delay  the  dawning  that  good  men  despaired 
of  day. 

Do  you  ask  me  our  duty  as  scholars?  Gen- 
tlemen, thought,  which  the  scholar  represents,  is 
life  and  liberty.  There  is  no  intellectual  or  moral 
life  without  liberty.  Therefore,  as  a man  must 
breathe  and  see  before  he  can  study,  the  scholar 
must  have  liberty,  first  of  all ; and  as  the  American 
scholar  is  a man  and  has  a voice  in  his  own  gov- 
ernment, so  his  interest  in  political  affairs  must 
precede  all  others.  He  must  build  his  house  be- 
fore he  can  live  in  it.  He  must  be  a perpetual 
inspiration  of  freedom  in  politics.  He  must  recog- 
nize that  the  intelligent  exercise  of  political  rights 
which  is  a privilege  in  a monarchy,  is  a duty  in  a 
republic.  If  it  clash  with  his  ease,  his  retire- 
ment, his  taste,  his  study,  let  it  clash,  but  let  him 
do  his  duty.  The  course  of  events  is  incessant, 
and  when  the  good  deed  is  slighted,  the  bad  deed 
is  done. 

Young  scholars,  young  Americans,  young  men, 
we  are  all  called  upon  to  do  a great  duty.  No- 
body is  released  from  it.  It  is  a work  to  be  done 
by  hard  strokes,  and  everywhere.  I see  a rising 


43 


enthusiasm,  but  enthusiasm  is  not  an  election  ; and 
I hear  cheers  from  the  heart,  but  cheers  are  not 
votes.  Every  man  must  labor  with  his  neighbor, 
in  the  street,  at  the  plough,  at  the  bench,  early  and 
late,  at  home  and  abroad.  Generally  we  are  con- 
cerned, in  elections,  with  the  measures  of  govern- 
ment. This  time  it  is  with  the  essential  principle 
of  government  itself.  Therefore,  there  must  be 
no  doubt  about  our  leader.  He  must  not  prevari- 
cate, or  stand  in  the  fog,  or  use  terms  to  court 
popular  favor,  which  every  demagogue  and  traitor 
has  always  used.  If  he  say  he  favors  the  interest 
of  the  whole  country,  let  him  frankly  say  whether 
he  think  the  interest  of  the  whole  country  de- 
mands the  extension  of  slavery.  If  he  declares  for 
the  Union,  let  him  say  whether  he  means  a Union 
for  freedom  or  for  slavery.  If  he  swear  by  the 
Constitution,  let  him  state,  so  that  the  humblest 
free  laborer  can  hear  and  understand,  whether  he 
believes  the  Constitution  means  to  prefer  slave- 
labor  to  free  labor  in  the  national  representation 
of  the  territories.  Ask  him  as  an  honest  man,  in 
a great  crisis,  if  he  be  for  the  Union,  the  Consti- 
tution, and  slavery  extension,  or  for  “ Liberty  and 
union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable.” 

Scholars,  you  would  like  to  loiter  in  the  pleas- 
ant paths  of  study.  Every  man  loves  his  ease — 
loves  to  please  his  taste.  But  into  how  many 


44 


homes  along  this  lovely  valley  came  the  news  of 
Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill,  eighty  years  ago,  and 
young  men  like  us,  studious,  fond  of  leisure,  young 
lovers,  young  husbands,  young  brothers,  and  sons, 
knew  that  they  must  forsake  the  wooded  hillside, 
the  river-meadows,  golden  with  harvest,  the  twi- 
light-walk along  the  river,  the  summer  Sunday  in 
the  old  church,  parents,  wife,  child,  mistress,  and 
go  away  to  uncertain  war.  Putnam  heard  the 
call  at  his  plough,  and  turned  to  go,  without  wait- 
ing. Wooster  heard  it,  and  obeyed. 

Not  less  lovely  in  those  days  was  this  peace- 
ful valley,  not  less  soft  this  summer  air.  Life  was 
dear,  and  love  as  beautiful,  to  those  young  men  as 
it  is  to  us,  who  stand  upon  their  graves.  But  be- 
cause they  were  so  dear  and  beautiful,  those  men 
went  out,  bravely  to  fight  for  them  and  fall. 
Through  these  very  streets  they  marched,  who 
never  returned.  They  fell,  and  were  buried ; but 
they  can  never  die.  Not  sweeter  are  the  flowers 
that  make  your  valley  fair,  not  greener  are  the 
pines  that  give  your  river  its  name,  than  the 
memory  of  the  brave  men  who  died  for  freedom. 
And  yet,  no  victim  of  those  days,  sleeping  under 
the  green  sod  of  Connecticut,  is  more  truly  a mar- 
tyr of  Liberty  than  every  murdered  man  whose 
bones  lie  bleaching  in  this  summer  sun  upon  the 
silent  plains  of  Kansas. 


45 


Gentlemen,  while  we  read  history,  we  make 
history.  Because  our  fathers  fought  in  this  great 
cause,  we  must  not  hope  to  escape  fighting.  Be- 
cause, two  thousand  years  ago,  Leonidas  stood 
against  Xerxes,  we  must  not  suppose  that  Xerxes 
was  slain,  nor,  thank  God,  that  Leonidas  is  not 
immortal.  Every  great  crisis  of  human  history  is 
a pass  of  Thermopylse,  and  there  is  always  a Leo- 
nidas and  his  three  hundred  to  die  in  it,  if  they 
cannot  conquer.  And  so  long  as  Liberty  has  one 
martyr,  so  long  as  one  drop  of  blood  is  poured  out 
for  her,  so  long  from  that  single  drop  of  bloody 
sweat  of  the  agony  of  humanity  shall  spring  hosts 
as  countless  as  the  forest  leaves,  and  mighty  as  the 
sea. 

Brothers ! the  call  has  come  to  us.  I bring  it 
to  you  in  these  calm  retreats.  I summon  you  to 
the  great  fight  of  Freedom.  I call  upon  you  to 
say,  with  your  voices,  whenever  the  occasion  of- 
fers, and  with  your  votes,  when  the  day  comes, 
that  upon  these  fertile  fields  of  Kansas,  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  continent,  the  upas  tree  of  slavery, 
dripping  death  dews  upon  national  prosperity,  and 
upon  free-labor,  shall  never  be  planted.  I call 
upon  you  to  plant  there  the  palm  of  peace,  the 
vine  and  the  olive  of  a Christian  civilization.  I 
call  upon  you  to  determine  whether  this  great  ex- 
periment of  human  freedom,  which  has  been  the 


46 


scorn  of  despotism,  shall,  by  its  failure,  be  also 
our  sin  and  shame.  I call  upon  you  to  defend  the 
hope  of  the  world. 

The  voice  of  our  brothers  who  are  bleeding,  no 
less  than  of  our  fathers  who  bled,  summons  us  to 
this  battle.  Shall  the  children  of  unborn  genera- 
tions, clustering  over  that  vast  western  empire, 
rise  up  and  call  us  blessed  or  cursed?  Here  are 
our  Marathon  and  Lexington  ; here  are  our  heroic 
fields.  The  hearts  of  all  good  men  beat  with  us. 
The  fight  is  fierce — the  issue  is  with  God.  But 
God  is  good. 


# 


321  Broadway,  September  1,  1856. 


LIST  OF  NEW  BOOKS 

TO  BE  PUBLISHED  THIS  FALL  BY 

DIX,  EDWARDS  & C O. 


ORIENTAL  ACQUAINTANCE;  Being  Letters  from  Asia 
Minor.  By  J.  W.  DE  FORREST. 

THE  GOLDEN  DAGON;  or,  Up  and  Down  the  Irrawaddi  : 
containing  Passages  of  Adventure  in  the  Barman  Empire.  By  AN  AMERICAN. 

TRAVELS  THROUGH  TEXAS.  By  Fred.  Law  Olmsted. 

A continuation  of  his  “ Seaboard  Slave  States.” 

LIFE  IN  CALIFORNIA,  AS  NOTICED  AND  NOTED  BY  A 

LADY.  By  Mrs.  E W.  FARNHAM. 

JUNIUS — LORD  CHATHAM;  A Biographical  Statement,  showing 
that  the  elder  William  Pitt  was  the  writer  of  these  Anonymous  Letters.  By 

WILLIAM  DOWE. 

BRITTANY  AND  LA  VENDEE;  Tales  and  Sketches.  With  a 
Notice  of  the  Life  and  Literary  Character  of  Emile  Souvestre. 

GREECE  AND  THE  GREEKS  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY. 

By  EDMUND  ABOUT,  Author  of  “ Tolla.”  Translated  by  authority. 

TALES  OF  FLEMISH  LIFE.  By  Hendrik  Conscience. 


ILLUSTRATED  BOOKS. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  SIR  THOMAS  THUMB.  By  the  Author  of 

“ Heir  of  Redclifle,”  “ Little  Duke,”  etc.  Beaut.l'ully  Illustrated  by  J.  B. 
ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SCRIPTURE.  By  an  Animal  Painter. 

Beautifully  Photograph  d,  with  Notes  by  a Naturalist. 

%*  The  first  book  on  which  this  art  has  been  attempted. 

RICHARD  DOYLE’S  NEW  CHRISTMAS  BOOK;  Being  an 

Account  of  Messrs.  Brown,  Jones,  and  Rubivsox’s  Sporting  Adventures. 


CHILDREN’S  NE  W BOOKS, 

THE  SCHOOLFELLOW.  Vol.  I.  Illustrated. 

GOLD  AND  SILVER.  By  A.  VV.  H.  Beautifully  Illustrated. 
ABOUT  NEW  YORK.  By  Philip  Wallys.  Illustrated. 

DIX,  EDWARDS  A CO., 

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No.  oil  Broadway,  New  York. 


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8vO.  SEWED.  PRICE  50  CENTS. 

The  Political  Essays  of  Parke  Godwin,  Esq. 

Reprinted  for  the  most  part  from  c<  Putnam’s  Monthly.” 

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A Journey  in  the  Seaboard  Slave  States. 

BY  FRED.  LAW  OLMSTED. 

Fourth  Edition. 

I2M0.  CLOTH,  ILLUSTRATED,  $1.25. 

“ Our  readers  will  hardly  need  our  urgent  appeal  to  read  and  ponder  well 
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now  printing: 

A Journey  in  Texas. 


BY  FRED.  LAW  OLMSTED, 

Author  of  ‘'Journey  in  Seaboard  Slave  States.” 


